The SitePoint Forums have moved.

You can now find them here.
This forum is now closed to new posts, but you can browse existing content.
You can find out more information about the move and how to open a new account (if necessary) here.
If you get stuck you can get support by emailing forums@sitepoint.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

KeyGenerators

My company sells software online, we know that their is a crack floating around and we figured out a simple way for the crack not to work.

This morning we got a support request of a guy looking for an older version because he said it was more user friendly. I kindly told him that we longer have that version, he replied back saying he would like to upgrade his serial, so I asked him to send his info and it was a keygenerated copy. I replied with sorry that is an invalid serial number, should I do anything else? Can I do anything else?

DISCLAIMER- I do not crack software, I do not write/distribute cracks etc etc. Nor do I condone the activity of doing so. I am a security hobbiest, I read a lot about it, and know a lot about it. But for the right reasons, not the wrong ones . -- Thanks

No, not really.

No matter how hard they try, it seems someone always finds a way to crack software. You patch it, they crack it. *shrug*

If you can prove that it is generated, and if you know enough about him to track him down, you might consider pressing charges, but I don't know really....

I have found one software program, whose company makes it very difficult to crack. I admire their solution as it is quite effective, even though it is kinda a pain.

No matter how small a new release is, they always change their S/N algorithm. A very minor change though. It doesn't even change the total number of digits in the key. So, lets say version 2.1.3 is out. When they release 2.1.4, it will break the crack for 2.1.3, and it will no longer function. Its a pain for customers, but people who crack software are not used to writing cracks for every little version. Usually just for the major ones (ie 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, etc etc)

SOmething else you might consider doing, is going through a seperate company to do your trial release. I know little about it, but I know Macromedia uses one such company for the DW trial among other things.

I am guessing it is some kinda of wrapper for your setup.exe file. This wrapper handles the expiration/security of your trial version.

I can't remember the name of the company, but go download Dreamweaver 4, and install it. The name will be in the set up somewhere.

I wish there was an easy solution for you. Let me know if you have any ideas you wanna bounce off me.

When someone registers the software it writes the serial to the database on the products servers, then when they try to register it checks if that exisits if it does it does not allow them to unlock it.

But I also think anyone who looks for a crack and fails to crack the software won't buy it anyways!

I don't really think there is a way around it, unless you are able to implement a system where a required file/files are located on your server and to use the program the user has to logon and get authenticated.

I've helped develop a few programs and have checked into protections and even what your thinking of with the server check probably wouldn't work, since programs like cuteftp work the same way and crackers have worked around the authentification by directing all check requests to a non-existant proxy.

The only real protections I've seen work have been ones like on Quake 3/Tribes 2/Diablo where in order to get full functionality you have to connect to their servers.

Well, look at it this way: evidentally your software is good enough to make them want to have the full version -- even if their means of obtaining it are illegal. I would do something similar to what was suggested above and change your code ever so slightly with each new version, to prevent cracks and patches.

I looked at your site LiveTronix... and think it's REALLY sad when someone makes a GREAT program that's only $20 and someone cracks it because they don't want to pay for it.

The things only 20 bucks... it would take more time for me to search the Internet for a crack than would be worth it to me to even try... (I do not crack software however)

I try to support small software companies, I even register freeware and shareware and usually send in a little more than the requested fee... I just want good software companies to make it and know how hard it is to compete with the big guys.

Anyway, I guess I'm not of much help to you in your situation but good luck.